336. JOSEF FRANK. “Flora”, chest of drawers, Firma Svenskt Tenn early 1940s, model number 1050, mahogany, upholstered with floraplanches from the flora of the Nordic region by C. And Lindman.

Front with three pull-out drawers with brass pull handles, ball feet, height 76, 132 x 44 cm

PROVENANCE:
Greta Agardh, who worked with Estrid Ericson at Svenskt Tenn from the 1930s and her entire active professional life. After that, by inheritance to the current owner.
One of the pictures shows Greta Agardh in the shop on Strandvägen. The picture was taken by Lennart Nilsson.

HISTORIAN
In the summer of 1930, Estrid Ericsom and the poet Bo Bergman make an excursion to Linnaeus's Hammarby. Estrid catches her eye to Linnaeus's idea of wallpapering her bedroom walls with floral prints. It inspires her to arrange her own sleeping alcove in a similar way. In Vienna at the same time, Frank had dressed linen cabinets with floral chintzes and cretons. Their collaboration in the late 1930s resulted, among other things, in a “Florabyrå” with 45 plans taken from Lindman's Swedish flora. Frank's involvement emerges in the thin moldings around the prints, in the marked neck of the ball feet and in the numerically simple proportions.
LITERATURE
Compare Monica Boman (ed), Josef Frank interior design, Millesgården 1994, p. 32.
Kristina Wängberg-Eriksson and Jan Christer Eriksson, Josef Frank Furniture Designer, Carlsson Bokförlag, Stockholm 2014, K 65.